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Despite surrendering over a minute to Adam Yates after a quiet day on Stage 18, Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) remains firmly in the hunt for a podium finish ahead of a challenging finale at the 2023 Tour.
18 seconds behind Rodriguez is Yates' brother Simon (Jayco-AlUla), with fellow Spaniard and Stage 10 winner Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) a further 31 seconds back in sixth and Aussie Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) 60 seconds behind Bilbao.
While the yellow jersey rests firmly on the shoulders of defending champion Vingegaard heading into Stage 19, INEOS Grenadiers sports director Steve Cummings, who praised the efforts of Tour debutant Rodríguez, believes the final weekend could provide the unexpected.
"It was really good, he did everything he could in a really difficult situation," Cummings told Cyclingnews.
"Vingegaard and Pogačar being a step ahead of the rest, the responsibility has often fallen on us to try and control things in the battle for the podium and we did that again.
"But Saturday is going to be huge - it could be a real tactical battle. Rather than a stage like Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it's perhaps got a profile that's more similar to the last day in Paris-Nice and we all know what happens there every year.
"So it could be the same. I suspect it will blow apart."
Stage 19 will see the peloton tackle a hillier 173km route from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny, passing through the Jura and north towards the Vosges and the French-Swiss border.
More importantly, however, it will act as a transition stage to a gruelling penultimate day of action on Saturday (AEST), which will look to inspire aggressive racing without climbing high into the mountains.
The 133km route for Stage 20 includes five mid-stage climbs before ending with the 8.1% Petit Ballon and the 8.4% Col du Platzerwasel, with race technical director Thierry Gouvenou stating before the Tour that the difficult finish was designed to "blow up the peloton" - a sentiment Cummings echoed after Thursday's stage.
A visibly dejected Pogacar fronted the media following Stage 18 after failing to gain time on his Danish rival. However, with such a challenging penultimate day of the race in store, funnier things have happened at the Tour, and the white jersey holder may be able to gain some ground on Vingegaard's somewhat unassailable lead.
Even if this battle for the maillot jaune fails to excite over the weekend, the battle for third place will likely provide some drama.
